1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a fall detection system and method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
For many of the elderly and other individuals with physical limitations, the propensity to fall and the risk of injury therefrom increases over time. Serious injury due to a fall may prevent a person from immediately contacting a caregiver or medical personnel, thereby exacerbating any of the injuries suffered. Conventional solutions to this problem include providing a user with an apparatus worn on their person having a panic button that is pushed to alert others of a fall that requires help. However, the user may not always be able to push the button if their injury is severe.
Other solutions include a worn detection apparatus 600 (FIG. 6) having a fall detection sensor that incorporates an accelerometer and/or altimeter to record input data that is then processed using local firmware stored on apparatus 600 to determine the probability of a fall event. The apparatus contacts a predetermined authority such as server 610 and call center 620 upon determination that a fall event has likely occurred based on the sensor data. However, this functionality comes at the expense of increased size, manufacturing cost, and power consumption of the worn apparatus 600. In addition, any changes to how the fall event is determined by apparatus 600 requires a manual update, Requiring a user to update the firmware of apparatus 600 is time-consuming and may be impractical for the elderly and infirm.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,394,385 provides a monitoring system including a mobile unit having a panic button and an accelerometer. The accelerometer data is transmitted to a hub node and used to determine whether a client fell and to determine sleep patterns. An alarm may also be set when normal sleep patterns are not followed.
US 2011/0025493 discloses a wearable monitor including an accelerometer coupled to a user that detects a potential fall event. A user may adjust the values of configurable parameters used by the monitor to determine a potential fall event or a server may modify the parameters per user based on individual user data.